politics and pop music
usually don't mix. either there's too much emphasis on the all-important message
at the expense of the music, or the message is too simple to really mean much.

on last train to
lhasa, though, banco de gaia tucks social commentary into
popular music without singing a word. the entirely instrumental u.s. début from
this english electronic act driven solely by toby marks focuses on the plight of
the tibetan people, but the music is as important as the message.

on the two-disc album's
first track marks layers eastern music and chanting over a seductive beat, then
winds to a trancey, minimalist finish. on the second track, he wraps snaking
horns around a pulsing dance-floor vanishing tibetan culture, and on kincajou
(duck! asteroid!), the music takes a turn for the mechanical.

by the end of the album,
there's nothing left but a synthesized swirl, the eerie sound of windswept
transmissions from astronauts to ground control. The music is too repetitious,
too synthetic, but perhaps that's the point.

either way, last train to lhasa isn't a gleaming sonic centerpiece any more than it's a
shouted political statement. instead, the album offers a trip into distant
realms that's subtle, meaningful, and musically captivating.

credits

reproduced without permission. to be used for
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